- nConvert working again, 9500 questions

- For Rolf Brunsting re Censorship

- Nokia 9500 Review - Part 1

- Content of the Digest

- 9500, P910, P910 email program,

- P910 Desktop s/ware from SE - freeware !!!,

- Repairing corrupted Agenda file

- Re: 9500 Spell & Thesaurus

- Nokia 9?00 and TomTom

- Content of the Digest,

Date: 8 Dec 2004 19:12:10 +0000
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: nConvert working again, 9500 questions

As suggested by a few Digestees I've uninstalled my copy of nConvert and then reinstalled it and that has now solved the problem of it not being able to convert my EPOC Word documents to RTF types.  I don't know why this worked - can only guess at a corrupted file somewhere within the app?

Does anyone know what sort of functionalitity the 9500 Communicator has built in for converting Symbian files to MS recognisable ones?  For instance, could I convert a Word file to RTF without any additional third party software?  Can it "print to file" as my 5mx could?  My old 9210 could not do this until I installed "Printers" (or something similar sounding - may have been from PsiLoc but I can't remember now).  Has anyone got one yet and managed to use Wi-Fi to connect it to a Wi-Fi modem successfully?

Interestingly I read somewhere about the Agenda app (well, "Calendar" on the Nokias!) being almost as powerful as EPOC's (not surprising as it is a
direct descendant) but annoyingly one cannot get the font on screen small enough to see enough detail at a glance in the "Week" view.  Much scrolling required if one has more than 3 entries per day!  It's the same as on the 9210 give or take a couple of minor changes so it's a shame Nokia only give you relatively large fonts and thus less detail to be viewed without scrolling.  Oh well, we can't have everything :-(

Regards
Kevin Thorne

Date: 8 Dec 2004 21:02:09 +0000
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: For Rolf Brunsting re Censorship

Hi Rolf,

I remember, and contributed to, the debate on censorship.

The Digest management team *_did_not_* propose censoring the Digest. A member of the team did not realise Owen's signatures were different so deleted some - and apologised with grace.

If you want to know my views (well, you might) they're on my website at http://www.philaypee.co.uk/thoughts/censorship.html.

Happy days,
Phil.

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat,
populist, fascist, liberal, conservative and so forth - are
never basic criteria. The human race divides politically
into those who want people to be controlled and those who
have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from
the highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest
number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious
and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable
neighbours than the other sort."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk

Date: 8 Dec 2004 22:56:52 +0000
From: Manuel Campos Galvan <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9500 Review - Part 1

This was published in All about
Symbian  http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/viewarticle.php?id=123,
but thought it would be of interest to all here.

The Nokia 9500 Communicator has arrived. All About Symbian been spending
some time with it, and over a series of articles, we're going to look at
the latest smartphone from Nokia. The 9210 was the first Symbian OS phone
from Nokia, and helped launch All About ER6 (as we were known then). Now,
four years later, how does this new device compete?
Author: Ewan | First Published: 18th Nov 2004 | Last Updated: 26th Nov 2004


Okay, before we go into the full review for real, I'll just tell you about
the first thirty seconds with the Nokia 9500. I lifted it out the box and
dropped the battery in. It had charge in it so I switched on the phone and
the PDA side. It asked what language I wanted the device to use, asked me
to put in my contact details, and that was me at the desktop. I called up
the web browser and asked it to browse to the BBC News site. Up comes a
dialog and I selected "Easy Wi-Fi Connection." It found my home Wi-Fi
network, configured everything, and brought up the headlines. Total time
was around 30 seconds. If nothing else, the out the box experience could
not have been smoother.

Everything Old is New Again
The key to the Nokia 9500 isn't the feature list, or the size, it's to
think about where the Communicator range is aimed at. The mission of the
Communicator phone has not changed since the original Nokia 9000. Here's a
quote from the press release of the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996:

The Nokia 9000 Communicator provides a wide range of mobile communications
services as well as personal organiser functions. The product combines a
GSM phone with applications like fax, e-mail, short messaging and Internet
access. It also includes the most useful organiser functions; a calendar,
an address book and a calculator. All of this is available in a
sophisticated, pocket-sized unit.

And here's the introduction to the Nokia 9500 Communicator in 2004:

The Nokia 9500 Communicator combines the features of a business PDA with an
integrated camera and multimedia support. Advanced messaging, e-mail,
security features, and high-speed data capabilities (including WLAN) make
it ideal for enterprise applications.

Once you cut through the market speak, you realise they're both selling the
same product. This underlines both the strength and the weakness of the
9500. The Communicator range has always done exactly the same thing - it's
been your home away from home (or office away from office as the case may
be). Very little in term of form, function and interface has been changed
since the 9000. Nokia Enterprise knows whom they are selling to, and they
know exactly what they want. And that group will happily update the 9210's
to the 9500, be completely comfortable with it, migrate 100% of their data
between the two machines, and there are a guaranteed number of sales.

If you're familiar with the 9210, then this is what you need to know. A
slightly better battery, enough memory to have ten or more applications
open and still run the Opera web browser, GPRS, Wi-Fi connectivity, and
only a few changes in the built in software. More an evolution than a
revolution.

Where it gets interesting is the fact that the 9500 has been hyped by many
to be the next great revolution in mobile computing. I'm sorry to say it's
not. The 9500 is a solid business and enterprise phone, geared towards
email, some web browsing and editing documents on the move. It's not a
leisure phone, it's for folk in business - where this leaves the 9300 we'll
leave till we see the retail package on that device.

Interface
The user interface on the 9500 probably typifies the whole ethos behind the
new Communicator. What worked before in the system screen layout on the
9210 and previous models is still there, and Nokia have only changed what
needed to be changed. So we still have the 'mini Task manager' on the far
left of the menu bar. This lists all the running apps and allows you to
close down tasks directly. You've got side information bars that can be
shrunk in certain applications. You've got the 4 command buttons next to
the screen on the right hand side.



What has changed is how the icons are laid out. Previously the 'big' icon
view showed a single horizontal strip of icons you had to scroll left and
right through. Now we can see 8 icons on the screen at any one time, and
these scroll down the way - much like a Series 60 or UIQ screen. This is
how modern users would expect program and icons to be laid out, and given
Nokia may be hoping to grab some converts from the other UI's, this makes a
lot of practical sense.

I also like the fact that an application icon can appear in more than one
folder. You can see in my screen I have Simon Quinn's Ebook application at
the top level. It also appears in an 'Extras' folder (which I created
myself, along with the 'Internet' folder). And you can change these for any
or all of the applications by calling up properties on each icon. This is a
lot easier to understand than the 9210's separate areas for Extras / Office
/ Internet, which left the Desktop screen only for shortcuts.



This 'simplification' of things from the 9210 is actually a much more
logical way of doing things. For example the Control Panel now has the
familiar split screen look of 'list' on one side and 'details' on the other
side. Everything just feels like things are where you would expect them,
with the Tools folder holding all the tweakable things like the Sync
details, Connection manager and link to the Help application.

The keyboard at first looks like it is going to be a disaster, with no
space between the keys, an almost grid like layout, and a smaller space
than the 9210. In use, it's actually surprisingly good. The keys are
bevelled outwards, which means that you don't have to hit the keys dead
centre, you've quite a wide target area. Okay with the size you'll never
get any touch typing done (unless you're 7) but it's definitely usable, and
a lot better than the hunt and peck keyboards that seem to be all the rage
on Palms and Pocket PC's.

Inside the 9500 you have two cursors. The first is the obvious circular
pad, that looks like an analouge controller. Before you get all misty eyed,
it's not. The control panel allows you to set up the acceleration of the
cursor depending on how long you hold a particular direction, and the speed
the on screen pointer moves. Given that underneath the pad are four
contacts (up, down, left and right) it's clearly a digital pad, but a well
programmed one at that. Right beside it we have some standard keys that
duplicate the functions. One thing to note though. When you hold down the
green chr key to get the extended function, up and down on the keys will
zoom the font, while up and down on the pad is your Page Up and Page Down.

The buttons along the top of the keyboard now lead directly into
applications, as opposed to separate folders. We have hot keys for
Telephone, Messaging., Web, Contacts, Documents (the Word Processor) and
Calendar. In addition, there is the 'My Own' button which you can set up to
be any application you like, either built in or third party. Personally I
have the File Manager under there, because I'm old fashioned enough to want
to know where everything is, and I'm happy living in a Directory Tree
rather than an Icon gui. The fact you can happily live in the File Manager,
create new docs and launch applications from this one application goes to
show the 9500 is a well thought out computer.

Contacts


The Contacts application button is almost in the middle of the machine, and
this position (next to Web) typifies the Communicator (if the name doesn't
give it away). It's here you can add in, edit and organise all your
contacts names and addresses, multiple emails and the plethora of phone
numbers they have. Well, there's always one entry in my database that is
chock full of information. Then there are others that have a single name
and a mobile number. The 9500 handles both of these brilliantly. Your list
of contacts is integrated with the outside of the phone, so when you have
the clamshell closed, all your numbers are available.



You can also set up groups of people - here's a list of people inside
Symbian, and I can move over to select a name and see their full contact
card. The split screen view, just like the Control Panel and the File
Manager, again shows the benefits of a consistent UI. If you know one of
these applications, then there's a fair chance you'll be able to understand
other applications of a similar layout. Moving your cursor (remember we
don't have a touch screen here) on to the right hand side allows you to
select a mobile number, landline number, email address or website. Pressing
enter on any of these and the 9500 will take the correct action - in the
case of a mobile it'll ask if you want to call the contact, write an SMS or
write an MMS.

It's also possible to send individual contact cards to other phones or
people, and the list of options for this in the menu system gives an
impressive snapshot of how the 9500 can talk to the outside world. You can
send over the air by an SMS or MMS. You can email the details. You can even
beam directly using InfraRed and Bluetooth. What you can't do is send more
than one contact at a time, so it's not possible (for example) to dump
every contact into a single vCard file for easy import into non Windows
powered computers. Or other smartphones. Yet again this feature will be
left to the third party companies. I know I said that the 9500 changed very
little, but there are times such as this when I wish they had been able to
integrate some of the most popular third party apps into the firmware.

Contacts was probably the most robust and fault free app in the 9210 (apart
from the export) so it's no surprise that in the 9500 it's one of the
strongest applications.

Telephone
Putting it simply, the outside phone on the 9210 was poor at best. It
allowed you to dial numbers and read SMS, but not much else. The 9500 makes
amends for this with a 128x128, 65K colour screen on the outside, but how
useful is it?

Firstly, it's using Nokia's Series 40 interface, with some hooks into the
Contacts and Messaging databases that the opened 9500 uses. While it's an
obvious thing, the fact you can read emails as well as texts is great. But
while you can reply to texts on the outside, your email is read only. If
you want to reply to an email, you'll have to open the clamshell.

The final production version has two main features missing from a regular
Series 40 phone. The first is that there's no way to run Java midlets on
the screen, so no way for programmers to get access to the front screen as
they have with the flip of devices like the P900. I don't think this will
be missed much on the 9500, but even the option to have more flexibility on
the outside has been taken from the programmers. I think this is a mistake.

The second big omission is the lack of T9 predictive text input when
replying to an SMS. Why???

While the keys inside the 9500 are better than they look, the stylish
design of the keys on the outside are not that great to use. Admittedly
you're not going to use them all that often, but they're not up to the job
of anything more than the occasional fast text or phone number. The central
half moon keys (2, 5, 8 and 0) don't sit still and move around a lot. The
outside keys do an adequate job, the whole impression of the number pad is
that it looks very nice and futuristic, but it's not really up for a lot of
use.

Why are Nokia unable to put a decent cursor or controller on any device
except the 7650? The cursor pad on the 9500 is a nightmare. To select
anything you need to push in on the pad, but invariably you hit one of the
directions first. This makes things complicated as the four directions keys
act as shortcuts (up is the camera, down is contacts, right is the SMS
inbox and left brings up an empty SMS you can type into). I'll be looking
at the camera functionality with the multi-media later on, but I'll point
out now that you can only use the stills camera and video recording while
the 9500 is closed.

Call quality is pretty good, although users of the older communicators
should note that for the first time, the speaker is on the same side of the
closed phone as the screen and number pad. Almost every call I've answered
this week has seen me talk into the back of the phone and wonder why it's
really hard to hear anyone!

Date: 8 Dec 2004 23:02:50 +0000
From: Antony Booth <address truncated>
Subject: Content of the Digest

To: All members in response to Rolf Brunstings post in digest 651

I feel myself agreeing with your point where there was no general concensus on the Thoughts for the day discussion, other than there were very strong opinions on both sides and the discussion was terminated as it was clearly the will of the admin to maintain the status quo of the digest, rather than allow the topic to fade or for a general concensus to be determined.
   The purpose of my post is not to submit an opinion on the topic either way, but to suggest an option to suit all.
   A few months ago, I suggested to the admin that all the functionality of administering the digest could be migrated to a web server and the distribution could still be controlled from a psion device using Web and Opera, but certain aspects of the digest would be automated and integrated into the psioneering archive. Essentially, I suggested the mail is retrieved and automatically filtered, using a web based scripting language like PHP, Perl, ASP (Don't laugh, some M$ sheep use it). By automating the collation, filtering and distribution of the digest articles, registered members could visit the website and personalise their digest so some could receive it with the Thought for the day and others could select to ommit these (selected using regular expressions and possibly agreeing to prefix them with a tag such as "TFTD:"). Other members may choose to receive the digest in HTML form or as a .PDF? The point is; as the digest mailbox would be handled by the scripts and the output to subscribers also automated, each subscriber could receive an individual digest formatted to suit, there would be less human error such as putting everyones email address in the BCC accidentally. Failure to receive a digest, or accidentally deleting one could easily be rectified by logging on to the website and have it resent. As the digest articles would be stored in a database, a web based search facility could be integrated into the archive, making the retrieval of information easier, searching by user, subject or keywords?
Clearly, such a decision is a matter for the digest admin and would require some web development, which I would be willing to assist with or even complete, but I am just wondering if digest members could come to some concensus either way on whether this would be a good idea? It might also be useful if members would submit opinion on both the benefits and drawbacks of such a solution, aswell as admin members including what they feel are the minimum requirements for such a system and whether it would improve their ability to administer or not?
If there was a general concensus and the admin were interested in at least exploring the possibility, I could create a demonstration/alpha version, using a test mail account and website so users and admins could get a better idea of what the pros & cons are and whether it would be worthwhile to continue with this approach?


Antony Booth

Date: 9 Dec 2004 00:56:29 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: 9500, P910, P910 email program,

Answer to: Steve litchfield

Re.: 9500 - After two weeks, what are your impressions of the 9500 besides the lack of Spell and Thesaurus ?

Answer to: Arabbitte

Re.: P910 - Welcome back to the "flip world". To me it was so obvious that I did not even try to remove it. JOT does work wonders, but for some caracters like ' I find it easier to press the key. I also use the thumbboard for input of long numbers like telephone numbers. However, I can't use it with two thumbs, I hold the phone in one and use the thumbboard with the other. Would you write long(er) word documents using JOT ?

Answer to: Rolf Brunsting

Re.: P910 email program - Thanks for the answer, that is clear and I can use it the same way. However, when traveling let's say 3 or 4 days for work and keeping both work and private email in the mailbox on the third day I have to remember which emails I have to keep in the mailbox in order not to delete them from the remote mailbox and which ones I can delete. That could be quite a task if there are a good number of messages. On the Psion I can either use mover or copy and than forget about the remote mailbox when deleting emails from my Psion. With the next contact the old messages are normal print, the new ones in bold. I understand the limitations and will use the P910 email only for during the day while traveling. In the evening I can download all email again to my Psion and work as usual. It is great just to check if anything urgent came in and if so to read that message.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 9 Dec 2004 00:56:31 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: P910 Desktop s/ware from SE - freeware !!!,

Answer to: Arabbitte

Re.: P910 Desktop s/ware from SE - freeware !!! - I wrote this message on 6/12 but ifor one reason or another it did not reach the digest mailbox. I don't think this program is worthwhile at all :

In the last few days SE came out with their own Desktop program to make it easier to navigate through the different options on this phone/PDA.

I downloaded the program and had a quick look at it but have to inform that the program does not compare at all to the third party programs like for example Handy Desktop that I use.

The first very irritating problem is that it settles itself as the program that comes up when opening the flap and takes the left top place of the applications which you cannot change. Who are SE to force me to use their program the way they see fit ?  What if a user wants to use their program but not as the first one coming up when opening the phone ?

The program exists of two screens that are not flexible at all. The "Desktop" screen shows the status of your messages, missed calls, appointments and tasks. You cannot change these four to different ones if you would like to. Pressing on one of these options will show in the window above it the exact details. For example, press on Tasks (2) and you will see the two tasks in the list. However, it will show you all tasks on the list including the ones with future dates. Furthermore you get 3 buttons to go to new SMS, new appointment or new task, but again you cannot change these buttons to for example a new email instead. You can configure the wallpaper, hardware button and default view and that's it.

The second screen is a shortcut screen. You get 9 shortcuts to program and that is all, no further screens. The options are more limited than with Handy Desktop, for example you can only choose "Messages" but not a specific mailbox like "Freeserve" (my own example). There are no menu's, no folders and no other options.

In short, I find this program lacking in options and flexibillity and annoyingly forcing me to put it as an icon in the main toolbar, so I have deleted it again from my P910.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 9 Dec 2004 02:54:48 +0000
From: Michael Kosarin <address truncated>
Subject: Repairing corrupted Agenda file

Anyone have any luck repairing a corrupted Agenda file on a 5mx?
("Unexpected end of file".) Tried the usual ‹ merging in from a new file,
etc., to no avail. Data is readable within DiskEditor in Hex ascii view, but
obviously it's not very usable that way. Was of course backed up, but the
10,000 to one shot of backup also failing came to pass simultaneously, alas.
Backup of backup goes months back. Much appreciated....

Michael Kosarin
New York City

Date: 9 Dec 2004 09:03:00 +0000
From: Martin Maxwell <address truncated>
Subject: Re: 9500 Spell & Thesaurus

Date:  9 Dec 2004
From: Martin Maxwell Harnevie <address truncated>
Subject: Re: 9500

Regarding spell and thesaurus.

>> Biggest downer of the 9500 for ex-Psion users is the lack of Spell and >>Thesaurus in Word, unless I'm missing something.....
>I am disappointed that Nokia are dumbing down (sorry Rolf), the built inoffice >suite, hopefully some third party will write one that will plug in.

There might be a contractual explanation. If I recall correctly, the Spell/Thesaurus application was originally developed by Psion Software based on a Spell/Thesaurus component licenced from Lernout&Hauspie. This contract was later transferred to Symbian along with other Psion Software assets, and the application became part of Symbian Office.

Since then a number of things have happened. L&H has undergone some turbulent times and the founders have been in and out of jail. Effectively L&H does not exist anymore and its assets have been acquired by other companies.

Perhaps also the original Psion-L&H agreement had a validity of 5 years. if it was signed in 1997, the contract period would have ended in 2002, i.e. sufficient to cover the 9200 series Communicators but now lapsed without any renewal possible.

Just a theory of course. But I think a quite probable one.

Furthermore, the reason why Symbian itself has been unwilling to contract a L&H replacement is that Symbian's current strategy is to leave all 3rd party contracting to the licencees. This includes applications for text entry, web browsers, viewers etc and now also spell checkers & thesauri.

To Nokia's defence therefore, it might not be intentional 'dumbing down'. However, it should be clear to Nokia and Symbian that this is an essential feature in the Symbian Office suite, in particular if Nokia and Symbian wish to convince in the enterprise market space a replacement for L&H is essential.

For OPL developers, this also means that any applications which make use of the Spell.opx unfortunately cannot be ported to the 9500/9300 unless one is prepared to develop one's own Spell/Thesaurus... Do it, and you might get a licence deal from Nokia...

All the best
Martin Maxwell Harnevie
Petaling Jaya - Malaysia

Date: 9 Dec 2004 16:24:11 +0000
From: K. Liebmann <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9?00 and TomTom

Hi all,

the Nokia 9300 looks very good to me.

Citymaps and Route are two applications I use quite often on my 5mx. What about them on a 9300 (or 9500)? Do the old applications run there? Does TomTom provide support for the Nokia Symbian devices?

Greetings

Karsten

Date: 10 Dec 2004 00:23:57 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Content of the Digest,

Answer to: Rolf Brunsting

Re.: Content of the Digest - I suppose we will never satisfy everybody in this matter and I believe we are not doing such a bad job in keeping the digest mostly clean of personal attacks and with no censorship on subjects. Just my personal opinion.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK